


The magic of standing up for others

by Frog_that_writes



Series: Dursley's Sell Drugs+ Shit AU [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gray! Harry, Idk what to tag this as, Pre-Hogwarts, independent! harry, mafia dursley, well in the future at least, you should read the first book first
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-15
Updated: 2019-08-15
Packaged: 2020-09-01 04:33:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20252251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Frog_that_writes/pseuds/Frog_that_writes
Summary: The first time something happened that Harry couldn’t explain, he was seven.-The second fic in this installment. Takes place a few years before the first one, but you should read it first because it includes a lot of world building necessary to understand this.





	The magic of standing up for others

**Author's Note:**

> I wasn't expecting to update again so soon. Don't get used to it, you're sure to be disappointed soon lmao

The first time something happened that Harry couldn’t explain, he was seven. Of course, odd things had happened to him before, but until that age they had been easily brushed off with an “overactive childhood imagination.” 

But at seven years old, he was really barely considered a child anymore in his family. He was slowly learning how to get used to the feeling of a gun in his hand, though he hadn’t fired one yet, and he and his cousin were getting weekly lessons on “the art of rumors” from his aunt as well as other various skills. 

None of those skills included turning his teacher’s hair blue.

He hadn’t meant to, really. It’s just that he was getting so sick of adults thinking his cousin was stupid just because it took him a little longer to sound out some words, or because he was still a little confused by double digit addition.

Harry knew he was still young and he didn’t know a lot of things, but he knew Dudley wasn’t “slow.” 

He watched the older boy soak up their aunt’s lessons like a sponge. And when they got a computer to share for a combined birthday present and Dudley had noticed him fumbling with the mouse, he had patiently explained to him all the keyboard shortcuts, even though Harry had no idea when he had the time to learn all of them.

So when their teacher stood over Dudley’s desk while he tried to sound out the words in some picture book they were being made to read that week and wondered aloud “How on earth he was ever going to advance to the next grade if he couldn’t even read!” Harry felt something inside him snap.

And suddenly Mrs. Horshire’s hair was the exact color of the small paperback books. A light baby blue color. Which unfortunately was quite the change from her natural black locks. 

Fortunately, young children tend not to pay much mind to their mean teacher’s hair color, and just had the vaguest of sense that something was different about her that day when the looked up at her shriek of horror.

Because that was the other unfortunate thing. Apparently mean old teachers paid attention to their own hair color a lot. And it was quite the surprise when single strand fell in their eyes and it was a great deal lighter than it should be.

Harry couldn’t help but giggle at the distraught look on her face, which quickly turned into all out laughter when she began demanding to know which one of them had done something, as if a seven year old could spontaneously change someone’s hair color.

Oddly enough, that was also his relatives argument when his laughter was deemed a confession and he was sent to the principal's office. 

Thankfully, the principal agreed and his aunt and uncle to take Harry and Dudley home since they were already there and it was the last period, with a parting promise to have a talk with their teacher about ridiculous accusations against students.

The drive home was oddly quiet, and filled with nervous glances from his oldest relatives and confused ones from his cousin, but Harry paid them no mind, still caught up in his glee over his teacher’s expression and the knowledge that she would be getting in trouble with the principal instead of him.

“Boys,” Aunt Petunia said when they walked inside the door. “Before you go to your rooms, come sit in the living room. We need to have a talk about what happened today.”

Resigning themselves to a lecture instead of being able to rush upstairs to play, they reluctantly walked into the living room and flopped down on the couch, waiting impatiently for their guardians to start talking.

“We need to know what exactly happened,” his uncle said seriously, which Harry thought was rather ridiculous because they had already been over it with the principal.

“Our teacher’s hair turned blue,” he said simply, and Dudley nodded his agreement. “Why are we talking about this again?”

His uncle opened his mouth to say something, but Petunia but a hand on his arm to stop him. He took a deep breath, then continued, but his question was directed at his aunt instead of at them.

“How exactly are we supposed to tell?” He asked in a sort of half-whisper, like this was something the boys shouldn’t hear but that he didn’t feel the need to make an effort of concealing. 

“I remember Lily always…” she trailed off and bit her lip, seemingly thinking about something. Harry was waited for her to continue, wondering what exactly his dead mum had to do with his teacher’s weird hair. “Emotions…” she said so faintly Harry almost didn’t hear her.

“What was happening before his hair changed color?” Petunia asked finally.

“Mrs. Horshire was saying I was going to get held back since I couldn’t read,” Dudley said, not sounding terribly upset. After all, he knew he was smarter than his teacher’s thought, it was really just an annoyance to him.

“ _ What?”  _ Aunt Petunia exclaimed. “That bi-” This time it was Uncle Vernon’s turn to put a hand on Petunia’s arm to stop whatever she was going to say, and she took her own deep breath. “And what exactly were you feeling Harry?” she asked far more calmly.

“I dunno,” he answered. “Angry, I guess. She’s the stupid one if she thinks Dud’s slow. He’s way more smart than she is anyways.”

Despite themselves, his aunt and uncle smiled. They might not always see them as much more than told, but there came moments when they really did feel proud of them. And it was nice to know they were already watching out for each other instead of letting some sort of sibling rivalry tear them apart at a young age.

They felt their smiles fade as they realized what they would have to do next, though.

“Dudley, why don’t you go on up to your room? We need to have a few more words with Harry. We will be having a talk with that teacher of yours though,” his uncle said. Dudley inwardly rolled his eyes at what they were inevitable going to make into a big deal, but ambled off to his room anyways, sending Harry a look that offered good luck. Harry appreciated it. “Having a few words” was never a good thing in this house. 

Petunia and Vernon had always said that if they were going to have this conversation, they didn’t want Dudley around. There was a chance he would get jealous, and that would be very bad for their plans. No, they would wait until they found a skill Dudley was good at that Harry wasn’t before they brought it up with him, to ensure a level of fairness in their minds. Besides, they knew their son could keep a secret, but it was best not to leave anything to chance. 

“Harry…” Petunia began. “I know this is going to sound crazy, but it sounds like you may have caused this to happen.”

“No way,” Harry scoffed. “How could I have done that?”

“Maybe he should try doing it again?” Uncle Vernon suggested to his wife. “Just changing the color of something. To prove he can do it.” His aunt sighed, but nodded and turned to him. 

“Okay, Harry, I want you to pick something and focus very hard on it. Now, imagine it changing into a different color.”

Harry inwardly thought this exercise pointless, but conceded and turned his attention to the lamp on the end table beside him. Closing his eyes, he focused as hard as he could on imagining the cream lamp shade turning a dark green, like the color of his eyes. He felt a rush of  _ something  _ and then there was a sudden warmth beside him.

Opening his eyes, he saw the lamp on fire. 

He scrambled backwards off the couch as he aunt quickly threw a nearby throw blanket on the lamp, smothering the fire. 

“Well,” his uncle said gruffly. “That didn’t go quite according to plan.” But there was a glint in his eyes, that showed he was almost pleased by something. 

“Woah,” Harry breathed, still staring at the now covered lamp. He had just started a fire with his  _ mind! _

“Now, Harry, you can’t tell anyone about this. Not even Dudley, for now at least,” his aunt said.

Harry, still staring and barely comprehending what she said, nodded quickly. He was aware that he would probably promise anything if it meant he would get to feel that odd rush of energy again. 

“Well boy,” Uncle Vernon laughed, a rather rare occurrence. “Guess you are going to be useful after all. Now, go do your homework, your aunt and I need to call the school.”

Reluctantly, Harry tore his eyes away from the lamp and nodded again and rushed up the stairs. There was no way he was going to be able to do his homework tonight. 

“I guess we’ll have to have some water nearby next time he practices,” he heard Aunt Petunia sigh from the top of the staircase. And decided maybe keeping all those half drunk water bottles around his room had finally paid off, because there was no way he could wait even one more minute to practice. 

**Author's Note:**

> Next up is the sorting, which i have mostly written. I just need to add a little more because it's only about a thousand words and I want these stories to all be long enough to be strong stand alone fics. But yeah, expect that either tomorrow or in the next few days.  
Also, forgot to mention this in the last one, but this is hugely inspired by my little sister who said a basic concept of this fic to me one time which i wanted to read immediately, but then she told me it wasn't a real thing she had read, so i had to take matters into my own hands.   
hope you enjoyed, please leave a comment and a kudo if you did!


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